Please Help:Is a cheap HIP not good enough?

Natdom

Hi
We are in the process of selling our home, and have been advised not to have a "cheap HIP" by the estate agents.
Why should this matter?
Surely they still have to comply with the regulations.
Can anyone enlighten me? Or is it just the obvious?
Thanks

melc29

All we were told was to get an 'independent' HIP so that we are not tied in with the EA...our HIP we got has a defered payment (after sale £300) or 12 months....others will know more!...good luck

bride_on_a_budget

Hi,
our Ea told us not to get a cheap hip done and get it done through them for £599.
so i went online to myhomepack.com (reccomended by a friend who recently sold house) and got a hip through them for £222.27 inc vat.
within 24 hrs i got a phone call to arrange for the energy assessor to come round , they came today and took about 45mins.
our hip should be ready fri or sat.

i hope this helps
bride on a budget

judy2357

If you look on the Law Society website it will tell you what documents are required in a Hip Pack.

moggylover

Natdom wrote: »

Hi
We are in the process of selling our home, and have been advised not to have a "cheap HIP" by the estate agents.
Why should this matter?
Surely they still have to comply with the regulations.
Can anyone enlighten me? Or is it just the obvious?
Thanks

Sounds as if they are getting a rake off on the HIP price and want you to get it through them!

Go online and check out what is required - and shop around for the best price.

david29dpo

The real answer is this. 1. The agent is trying to flog you a overpriced HIP which is no better then a cheap one or 2. The agent knows his stuff (unlikely) that cheap HIPs can be crap (but legal) With most cheap HIPs the searches are personal, not official. These can be so bad that your buyers solicitor will bin them making most of the HIP useless. This will mean it could upset your buyers having to pay for the searches, something that the HIP was designed to avoid. It could also mean your buyers may ask YOU to pay for them, making the cheap HIP not so cheap after all.

chickmug

david29dpo wrote: »

The real answer is this. 1. The agent is trying to flog you a overpriced HIP which is no better then a cheap one or 2. The agent knows his stuff (unlikely) that cheap HIPs can be crap (but legal) With most cheap HIPs the searches are personal, not official. These can be so bad that your buyers solicitor will bin them making most of the HIP useless. This will mean it could upset your buyers having to pay for the searches, something that the HIP was designed to avoid. It could also mean your buyers may ask YOU to pay for them, making the cheap HIP not so cheap after all.

Couldn't of said this better myself. You so have your finger on the real facts. Some EA's can make a couple of hundred on the HIP so is a very valuable income stream.

stallionbfd

I used a company called Smart Step for my HIP and the quality of the pack was very impressive and so was the price at £192.70 all inc plus an additional £6.95 if you want a hard copy but i didnt go for the hard copy i just let my estate agent print it out. Their number is 0845 074 3803 website is https://www.smartstep-properties.co.uk and the best thing is they are a nationwide company.

Cat695

stallionbfd wrote: »

I used a company called Smart Step for my HIP and the quality of the pack was very impressive and so was the price at £192.70 all inc plus an additional £6.95 if you want a hard copy but i didnt go for the hard copy i just let my estate agent print it out. Their number is 0845 074 3803 website is www.smartstep-properties.co.uk and the best thing is they are a nationwide company.

2 posts and both to do with this HIP company......SPAMMER:mad:

david29dpo

Reported...........

Richard_Webster

This issue of personal searches is greatly overrated. There are a few lenders - HSBC/FirstDirect who will not accept them but most will do so.

The plain fact is that estate agents may charge more but will still want a constant price for a HIP from whoever supplies it for them. Each local authority fixes its own official local search fees and they vary from about £50 to nearly £250. Typical personal search costs about £100. It is simply too complicated for estate agents and most solicitors (including myself) to start quoting variable figures for the cost of a HIP depending upon the local authority area where the property happens to be.

I've told my own local authority that when they phoned me with a survey about their local searches - national uniformity of price would make it easier to include official searches in HIPs - that way HIP providers could quote just two prices -one for personal and the other for official local searches.

Maybe it happens in other parts of the country but so far I have not had outraged buyers complaining because the local search is not acceptable to their lender.

What is much more likely is that a cheap HIP will get the title wrong. Unless it is a house with a single registered freehold title a cheap HIP company will not have staff capable of telling the difference. If a seller owns a separate piece of land they bought from a neighbour but which has a separate Land Registry title and is included in the sale - they won't include that - if the main title is unregistered and the extra piece of land is registered then quite likely only the extra bit of garden will be shown!

In my area there are a lot of long leasehold houses (999 years from around 1900 with about £3 pa ground rent). The leases generally give a right to use a rear access way. So when someone buys the freehold the solicitors keep the leasehold title going so the owner has both. I recently saw a HIP for such a property with only the leasehold title in it. My client thought he was buying a freehold property and was most concerned and not easily pacified until the freehold title was eventually produced.

So it is that sort of thing that cheap HIPs get wrong - not the searches.